NPL's commercial services are built on 100 years of leadership in accuracy, innovation and scientific research. Experienced consultants and project managers draw upon a unique combination of industry know-how and world-leading scientific discovery to deliver real-world business solutions and enable innovation and secure competitive advantage.

We strive to actively promote public awareness and appreciation of science and technology, particularly the importance of measurement and the role of NPL. Here you can find out more about the interesting things we do, science outreach activities you can get involved in or take a look at some of our educational resources.

Production and Purification of Radiotracer 236gNp for Environmental Applications

Further Information

The majority of the UK's radioactive waste, approximately 95%, originates from the nuclear power industry (Defra, 2004).

This waste occurs not only as a result of the production of nuclear fuel, but also from the operation of nuclear reactors, spent fuel reprocessing, R&D activities and decommissioning of old facilities.

Extract: Regarding yield and purity it is decided that the optimum irradiation condition for production of the radiotracer 236gNp was the irradiation of the 236(d)U target, which yielded the greatest amount of Bq of 236gNp and did so with the highest level of purity in regards to 238Pu.